Mathias Point Light

Mathias Point Light
Location	Potomac River opposite the mouth of the Port Tobacco River
Coordinates	38°24′18″N 77°02′34″W / 38.4051°N 77.0428°W
Tower
Foundation	screw-pile
Construction	cast-iron/wood
Automated	1951
Shape	hexagonal house
Light
First lit	1876
Deactivated	1961
Focal height	13.5 m (44 ft)
Lens	fifth-order Fresnel lens
Characteristic	Fl G 6s

The Mathias Point Light was a screw-pile lighthouse in the Potomac River in Maryland; the station was located near the Port Tobacco River. It was particularly noted for its ornate woodwork.

History

Funds for a light near Quantico, Virginia were appropriated in 1872. An engineering study recommended instead that lights be built 24 miles (39 km) downstream, and an appropriation was made in 1874 to build a light on Port Tobacco Flats, with a day beacon for Mathias Point. By the time construction began the two were switched, and the light was completed in 1876. Matthias Point was like no other screw-pile structure on the bay, with much decorative woodwork and a distinctive three tiered structure that some described as resembling a wedding cake.

It was intended that this light replace that at Upper Cedar Point; in the end the number of complaints led to the latter's reactivation in 1882. Mathias Point Light itself was automated in 1951 and replaced in 1961 by a beacon mounted on the old foundation.

References

Mathias Point Shoal Light Chesapeake Chapter, USLHS page
"Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maryland" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
de Gast, Robert (1973). The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 157.

External links

Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Maryland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.